CfCEPs positively regulate the pathogenicity of oil tea anthracnose, potential targets for fungicides

Oil tea (Camellia oleifera) anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum spp. seriously endangers the oil tea forestry. However, there is a lack of suitable targets for the development of efficient and environmentally friendly fungicides and precise prevention of oil tea anthracnose.

In this study, 20 highly expressed Colletotrichum fructicola candidate effector proteins (CfCEPs) were predicted as potential targets. Yeast secretion test showed that these 20 CfCEPs have secretory activity, indicating that they may be potential targets. Transient overexpression assay showed that 20 CfCEPs suppressed plant immunity, but only four of them (CfCEP1, CfCEP2, CfCEP7, and CfCEP8) directly promoted pathogen infection. Gene deletion showed that these four CfCEPs directly regulate pathogenicity, rather than indirectly regulating pathogenicity by regulating growth and reproduction, indicating that they are suitable potential targets. Subcellular localization analysis revealed that these four CfCEPs mainly function in the plasma membrane and cytoplasm. qRT-PCR analysis indicated that these four CfCEPs were upregulated during the infection phase. Finally, multiple sequence alignment, phylogenetic analysis, and conserved motif analysis suggested that these four CfCEPs were conserved in Colletotrichum genus.

In summary, this study provided four potential targets for the development of novel fungicides and theoretical guidance for the precise and efficient prevention of oil tea anthracnose. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.